Chapters in this book

1. Frontmatter i
2. Contents vii
3. Acknowledgments ix
4. Introduction. The Disappearing Christ and Other Stories 1
5. The Historical Jesus in Broad Daylight 7
6. Unseen Somethings: American Studies and Postsecular Critique 11
7. Things Normally Unseen: Film Studies and Postsecular Critique 17
8. Outline of the Book 24
9. 1. A Rare and Wonderful Sight: Ben-Hur’s Historicism 28
10. 2. Looking Sideways: Media Theories of Jesus Christ 55
11. 3. Tricks and Actualities: The Passion Play Film and the Cinema of Attractions 98
12. 4. The Double Life of Superimposition: W.E.B. Du Bois’s Black Christ Cycle 134
13. Coda. Resurrectionists: Toward a Post-Cinematic Postsecular 176
14. The Resurrection is in Technicolor: Cecil B. DeMille 178
15. The Resurrection is CGI: Mel Gibson 184
16. Post-Cinematic/Postsecular 189
17. The Resurrection is Straight to Video: Abbas Kiarostami 196
18. Notes 205
19. Bibliography 225
20. Index 235